Superwomen of Eva 2: The Hand of Fate
by Mike313
Summary: Being trapped inside Unit One was torture for Yui Ikari. She could do little but watch as her husband destroyed her son...until an old hero in search of a successor decided to pass his mantle to her. But even now, can Yui beat Gendo and make things right?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter One:** Golden Opportunity

"Father! Stop this crazy thing! Stop!" Shinji screamed helplessly as he pulled uselessly on Unit One's control yokes. "I beg of you, stop!"

But the Third Child's pleas fell on deaf ears, or more accurately, a stone heart. Gendo Ikari said nothing as he watched, from the safety of headquarters, as the two Evangelions—one possessed by an Angel, the other by the Dummy System—tore into one another.

Eventually, there was a wet, sickening snap as Unit Three's neck broke, and from that point, there was really no need for the Dummy Plug any longer. Any justification Gendo might have had to keep the untested autopilot system running evaporated, but he refused to give the order to deactivate it.

"Father! No more! Stop it! Please, make it stop!" Shinji cried, his screams starting to sound very much like sobs.

But Gendo did not, and Unit One continued, its eyes blazing with a red, demonic light. It tore Unit Three apart without mercy, spraying the landscape with blood and scattering dismembered body parts everywhere. Until finally, Unit One held Unit Three's plug in its hand.

"No!" Shinji shrieked. "_No!_"

The entry plug was crushed in Unit One's fist like an empty soda can, sending LCL splashing to the ground.

Suddenly, the world shattered, and the universe was nothing but blackness. Blackness, and a single folding chair, upon which sat a woman with short brown hair.

"Even after the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun have disappeared, Evangelion will remain," Yui Ikari said bitterly, still unable to believe how stupidly idealistic she'd been when she'd first spoken those words.

Have you ever had a particularly bad night? The kind where you spend hours trying to sleep, and eventually end up in a sort of half-awake state? The sort of state where you never quite know if you're dreaming or not, and reality tends to flit maddeningly in and out?

This was the state that Yui Ikari had spent more than a decade in, as she was trapped within Unit One. Her entire universe had become a purgatory where she sometimes remembered who and what she was, and what immortality had cost her, and where she sometimes just floated in the bewildering darkness, unable to recall her own name with certainty.

Until today. Today she had gained a level of clarity, though it was one she did not desire. Today, she had been tricked by her husband and the Dummy System, and she had hurt her son, who had already endured so much because of her foolishness as well as her husband's cruelty and inability to accept the loss he'd suffered.

Today, she had decided two things.

The first was that Evangelion Unit One would never function for Gendo again. She would only ever allow Shinji to pilot the EVA now.

The second was that purgatory was too good for her. So, with her greater clarity and greater control over the world within EVA, she had turned her world into a Hell. The worst kind of Hell she could imagine.

The world abruptly reformed, showing the first three Evangelion Units standing near Mount Nobe. The sun was low and as red as blood in the sky, and the air was charged with the apprehension of upcoming battle.

"An accident in Matsushiro?" She heard her son speak worriedly, even though she stood on the ground, far away from her only child. "Is Misato all right?"

Yui Ikari looked up and waited for the scene to play itself out again, biting her lower lip slightly as she submitted to her self-administered torture.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a man sat within a tower.

Once upon a time, this man had been young and bold, and he had fought evil in many forms, both mundane and supernatural. Once upon a time he'd walked along paths and through realms that most mortal men who go mad upon simply seeing. Once upon a time he'd commanded incredible powers which could change the world, and change the world he did, though always without attracting much attention to himself.

Those days, however, were over. He still had incredible power at his fingertips, but he was tired of using them. In fact, he was very tired in general. He felt that it was time for him to be done fighting the good fight.

The man abruptly reached up and grabbed the helmet that rested upon his head, applying all his strength to the task of pulling it off. However, it held fast; he couldn't so much as budge it.

"Damnation," he hissed.

Once upon a time, a very powerful entity had inhabited his helm. However, one of the many things that Second Impact brought an end to was the Ninth Age of Magic. The entity which possessed the helm had slowly withered and died in the Tenth Age, but a residue of him remained, and that wouldn't let him put down the mantle he'd carried for so long until he found someone else to take it up.

Unfortunately, finding a successor was harder than it might seem, because while power came with his station, so, too, did responsibility. And that responsibility had grown truly cumbersome indeed in this dark age for mankind. Additionally, it took considerable intelligence to do what he did.

In short, most of those who _could_ succeed him _wouldn't_, because they were too smart. Most of those who _would_ succeed him _couldn't_, because they weren't smart enough.

"Who would take my place?" he whispered to himself. Then in an angry, despairing roar, "Who would take my place?!"

The words echoed through both his helmet and his tower, and suddenly he felt overwhelming loneliness. His tower had not always been so empty, but the days when he had not been alone in it were also firmly consigned to the land of once upon a time. The man's shoulders slumped.

Suddenly, there was flare of light, and the man turned his head to look at the source of it. In the center of the room where he stood was an orb. It looked like it was made out of glass, but it was much, much more than a simple glass bauble.

"What do you have to show me?" he asked as he peered into the depths of the all seeing orb.

He remained where he was, unmoving, for over an hour, as the orb showed him everything. Finally, the light in it dimmed, and the man pulled away, blinking.

"It's insane," he mused aloud, "but it just might work."

As he said these words, there was another flare of light, but not from the orb. The man stepped into it and vanished from the tower.

* * *

Unit One tore Unit Three apart again without mercy, spraying the landscape with blood and scattering dismembered body parts everywhere. Until finally, Unit One held Unit Three's plug in its hand once more.

"No!" Shinji shrieked again. "_No!_"

The entry plug was crushed in Unit One's fist like an empty soda can, sending LCL splashing to the ground.

As her son's suffering reached a crescendo again, Yui Ikari's self-made perdition once more broke, leaving her in the relatively comforting blackness. She put her face in her hands as she tried to collect herself before she began it all over again.

However, before she could, there was a flare of light before her, bright enough for her to see it through her fingers, and Yui looked up to see that what appeared to be a large ankh made from golden light had formed before her.

"What in the world?" she muttered to herself.

As she watched, a man stepped through the light, and it suddenly vanished behind him.

"Dr. Yui Ikari?" the man asked, tilting his head downwards slightly to look at her. His voice had a powerful, otherworldly sound to it, and it seemed to echo within his helmet.

"You're real, aren't you?" Yui blurted out. "Not in my head, I mean."

It wasn't the most polite thing she could have said perhaps, but Yui hadn't spoken to another person in over ten years, so her lack of social graces was perhaps understandable.

"How do you know?" the man asked, tilting his head slightly to the side, possibly bemused.

"Well," Yui said, "you don't look like a product of my imagination, and I certainly never met you before, so you're not from my memory."

The latter thing was something Yui was absolutely positive about, since she would definitely have remembered someone who went around in a costume like the one this man was wearing. He was clad in blue and gold from head to toe. His pants and shirt were both of a deep blue, but his boots, belt, gloves, and the long flowing cape he wore were all bright yellow. A golden amulet in the shape of a simple circle hung around his neck.

However, the helmet was really the man's biggest fashion statement. It was roughly bullet-shaped, with a short fin on the top. It covered his whole head, except for parts of the side, where notches had been made to accommodate his ears. On the front were slits through which Yui could see faded blue eyes.

"It's true that I am no product of your mind," the man said, "though I suppose it's not strictly correct to say I'm not in your head, since this entire realm falls into that category."

"Okay," Yui said. "Who are you?"

"My name is Kent Nelson," the man replied, "however, most know me as Doctor Fate. I am one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world."

"I see," was all Yui said, sounding more uncertain than awed.

She was a scientist, but one who had, during her study of the Angels and the construction of the Evangelions, come to terms with the fact that there were things in the universe which mankind might never be able to comprehend. All too often during the development of Unit One, they'd proceeded by using trial-and-error methods, discovering what worked without ever being able to so much as guess at _why_ it worked.

However, the idea of a man wielding magical powers still didn't strike her as quite plausible.

"I have been Fate since before you were born, Yui Ikari, and I grow weary of wearing the helmet," Fate said. "It is time I chose someone to take my place, and you are the most likely candidate. Accept, and you will wield incredible powers, though it shall become your burden to protect this world from the demonic and supernatural forces that would invade it and spread chaos. Decline, and I shall leave here and never return."

Yui hesitated for a long, long moment. When she spoke, it was a small voice, one laced with more fear than anything else. "Let's say you're real, and your offer is real," she began.

"That would be most productive, since I am, and it is," Fate replied.

"Why me? What makes me deserving of this?" Yui asked. "I had great power once, great power. I worked with some of the most powerful men on the planet, and I played with God's toys. I _made_ a god, or something so similar to one that the difference was academic. I sought to ensure humanity's immortality. All I managed to do was get myself trapped within here and bring unending pain to my only son. If I had power again…"

She trailed off and shook her head.

Dr. Fate paused for a moment, and when he spoke next, it was in a much gentler tone than he had used thus far. "Tell me your story, Yui Ikari," he said. "I would hear it."

So she told him. She didn't know why she told it to this mystery man she had just met, whose face she hadn't even seen. Maybe it was because she wanted to confess, and there was no one else to confess to. Maybe it was because she wanted him to tell her it was all right. Maybe it was because she wanted him to tell her that she was as undeserving as she thought she was, so she could decline his own and go back to her self-inflicted torment.

Yet whatever the reason, she told him everything. How she'd met a young man named Gendo Rokubungi while they were in college. How the two had, not long after graduation, come into contact with an organization known as SEELE. How they had married and had a son. How they had built GEHRIN, and how Yui had fancied herself as building the future there. How she had known of or at least suspected the more unsavory things SEELE did to advance their plans. How she had decided to become the ghost in the machine.

"I _never_ planned to make my son watch that," Yui said, sitting down on her uncomfortable metal folding chair. "Even at my most foolishly idealistic, my most arrogant, I never thought _that_ would be a good idea. But it happened all the same, and now everything's falling apart because my husband can't accept the loss of me."

The whole time she talked, Fate offered neither comfort nor scorn, just listening silently. She couldn't see his face, so she couldn't even take a guess at how he was reacting to her story.

Finally, when she had finished her tale, he went down on one knee so he was roughly eye level with her, then he gently raised her chin so she was looking into his faded blue eyes.

"You have made many grave mistakes in your time, Yui Ikari," Fate said, and his tone was not unkind. "That I will not dispute. But tell me… tell of me of the things you've done _right_ in your life. Tell me of your son."

Despite herself, despite _everything_, Yui smiled. "Shinji, well, Shinji's kind, and compassionate, and a gentleman. He's timid most of the time, which isn't exactly a surprise given the upbringing he's had, but he can be _so_ brave when it really matters. He's… he's the only truly good thing I ever created."

"And you have had to watch helplessly for over ten years as your husband treated him as nothing more than a means to end to get you back," Fate said. "And then when the wheels of his terrible machine began to turn, you had to see your son bear the weight of the world upon his shoulders, and suffer horribly, and now, you were fooled into badly harming one of his few friends. Is that correct?"

"Yes," Yui said.

"Then don't you think you've suffered enough?" Fate asked simply.

Yui looked up at him, her watery green eyes filled with the fragile hope that she had already served her penance.

"Don't you think that you must forgive yourself, for your son's sake if not for your own, so that you can accept your one chance to change things?" Fate asked.

Yui wiped at her eyes. "Yes."

"Then my offer is accepted?" Fate asked, standing up again. "You will become my successor?"

"Hold on a moment there, Doctor," Yui said. "There are still a couple of problems. For one thing, I can't come and go like you apparently can. My soul's trapped inside Unit One."

Fate scoffed. "You think that would pose a problem to one such as I?"

"Also, I don't have a body of my own any longer," Yui added. "It was destroyed long ago."

"The body is just crude stuff, just matter," Fate said. "I can easily use my magic to craft you a new one."

"In that case, yes, I will be your successor," Yui said. "You had better not just be some kind of delusion."

"That you need not fear," Fate said, and with a wave of his hand, created another ankh-shaped portal of light. "Ladies first."

Taking a deep breath, Yui quickly stepped through the light. There was no thunder and lightning, no long, psychedelic tunnel through space. Instead, she immediately arrived right at the other side.

"Where are we?" she asked Fate, who had followed her through and then closed the portal.

They were standing by a wooden house, which looked old but well-maintained. All around the house, as far as the idea could see, was empty field, in which shrubbery grew without restraint. The place would have been fairly nondescript if not for the fact that _everything_ had a golden hue to it, including, Yui realized as she looked down at her hands, she herself.

"We're within the Amulet of Anubis," Fate said, indicating the simple circle of gold which hung around his neck. "The real version rests with my physical body."

"A simple piece of gold can act as a repository for souls?" Yui asked, eyes widening.

"Yes," Fate said. "However, it is beyond even my power to craft such an object. This amulet was made by Anubis himself, and given to one of his followers. However, Nabu, one of the Lords of Order, eventually took it from him and later bequeathed it to me."

"Nabu? Lords of Order?" Yui asked.

"Yes, the Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos were nearly-divine beings who were perpetually struggling against one another," Fate said. "They balanced one another out, after a fashion. Nabu created this helmet I now wear. His essence once resided in it, but now there is only a faint residue of his presence—it is what prevents me from removing the helm before my successor is ready to take it from me."

"I see… I think," Yui said.

Fate waved a hand dismissively. "It is largely a moot topic. The Tenth Age of Magic began not long ago, and it is an age in which the Lords of Order and Chaos do not fit. They are all gone now. I do not know whether that will make your time as Fate easier or more difficult than mine."

Yui nodded, trying to squelch the feeling that she'd gotten in very deep over her head.

_Remember, this is for your son,_ she thought.

"Well, to work," Fate said. "Before I pass the mantle to you, you must learn how to use magic _without_ the helmet's power first. I hope you are ready to learn."

* * *

From that moment on, Yui's life became a blur of instruction. She lost track of time as Dr. Fate mercilessly drilled her on the principles of magic and its execution. Magic was strange to her; in some ways it was like science, but in other ways, the two disciplines were completely different. There were rules to magic, just as there were rules to science, but those rules could often be bent, if not broken, as long as one was clever enough.

The first time Yui managed to successfully perform a spell, she was so shocked that she instantly allowed it to fall apart. She soon lost track of how much time she'd spent learning, knowing only that it was more than a day but less than a week.

At last, Fate proclaimed that her training was sufficient and departed, saying he was going to prepare her new body.

* * *

Fate returned to his physical body with a jolt, then grimaced beneath his helmet, feeling his joints scream in protest at being forced into motion after such a long period of idleness. After getting up, the first thing he did was perhaps the least mystical thing he could have done: he went to the bathroom.

With his business having been taken care of, Fate returned to his study. Once there, he touched the amulet that rested around his neck with his fingertips. Then his hand began to glow with violet light. He directed the luminous energy to the center of the room, where it formed into the shape of a woman, specifically, Yui Ikari.

The body, which was clad in a simple skirt and blouse combination along with a white lab coat, just stood there, its eyes completely blank. Fate frowned and looked down at his amulet, then he took it off his neck and placed it upon the body's.

Immediately, Yui released a gasp and staggered backwards. She would have fallen, but Fate reached out and steadied her.

"Oh my," Yui said, putting a hand to her temple. "That was… an experience."

Fate grunted in agreement. "I was unable to fully transfer your soul from my amulet to your new body," he informed her, taking the gold circle in his hand. "It would seem that all the abuse your soul has taken, having been transferred from your body to the EVA in so brutal a fashion, has damaged it too much for another full transportation."

"So what does that mean?" Yui asked apprehensively.

"It means that you must never remove this amulet," Fate said. "Also, don't ever barter your soul away. You won't get a good price for it."

"Right," Yui quickly agreed.

_Not that I was planning on selling my soul anyway,_ she added silently as she took in their surroundings.

They were in a stone chamber which was part of a much larger structure. Egyptian artifacts packed the room, and a large, four poster bed sat in one corner. Beyond the large doorway was an absolute maze of tunnels and staircases. It reminded Yui of a painting she'd seen once, '_Relativity'._

"Where are we?" she asked.

"My tower," Fate replied. "Though I suppose it is your tower now. You will be able to navigate it with the aid of the helm's powers. Speaking of which…"

Dr. Fate reached up and grabbed the Helm of Nabu with both hands, then pulled upwards. Yui watched with fascination as the metal seemed to warp and twist before her eyes before suddenly relinquishing its hold upon its wearer and reverting to its original shape.

And with it gone, she finally got to see Kent Nelson.

The man was utterly ancient. His body seemed to consist of nothing more than a skeleton covered in loose, sagging skin, and his face was deeply winkled and dotted with liver spots. He still had a full head of hair, but every strand was as white as snow. The rest of his costume had disappeared with the helmet, as he'd told Yui it would, and he was now clad in a simple pair of black pants and a button up shirt.

All in all, he looked impossibly small and frail compared to Doctor Fate.

"Finally," Kent said with a sigh of profound relief, his voice now sounding very normal and very soft, "finally I can give this away forever."

He handed the helm to Yui, which she quickly accepted, more because she feared his gnarled, shaking hands would soon drop it rather than out of any overwhelming desire to possess it.

Once relieved of the helm, Kent went staggering toward his bed. "Finally, finally I can _rest_."

"Mr. Nelson?" Yui spoke. "Kent?"

He offered her a weary smile as he got himself onto his bed. "The helm was the only thing forcing me to remain on this mortal coil," Kent said. "Now that it's off, I can lay down all my burdens, not just those of Fate."

Yui couldn't honestly say she was surprised, considering Kent's extreme age. "Then I suppose I can't tap your great reservoirs of wisdom any longer," she commented, feeling that she had to say something to this man whom she'd only know for a week or so, but who had given her the chance to make things right.

Kent laughed dryly. "You'll need to depend upon your own, Yui," he said. "By the way, time passes differently in that amulet than it does out here in the 'real world'. We've only spent about a day in there."

Yui nodded. That was good; the less time she'd spent in preparation, the better. Her husband's plans needed to be stopped as soon as possible.

"Thank you, Kent, for everything," she said.

"You're a good person, Yui," Kent replied, his eyes drifting closed. "You made some mistakes, but you learned from them, and that's all anyone can ask of person, when it comes right down to it. Good luck."

Then a smile spread over his face. "I am coming, Inza."

With that, Kent Nelson, the man who had been Fate, exhaled one final time and peacefully died.

Yui stood over the body for a long time, looking down at the man who had managed to give her life back to her, and to whom she had given his death. Then she sighed and waved a hand.

Immediately, flames rose up, lapping hungrily at Kent's body but not even singeing the bed sheets. Within seconds, his body had been entirely consumed, not even leaving ash in its place.

"Rest easy, Kent," Yui said, then she turned her attention to the helmet she had in her hands.

New apprehension clawed at her, now that she'd seen how the helmet had forced Kent to live what had obviously been beyond the time he'd wanted to. However, she pressed her fears down, thinking of her son, and put the helmet on.

* * *

The Geofront was a war zone. While the ceiling had been breached more than once, and the Eleventh Angel had managed to lay siege to the MAGI themselves, no Angel had ever set foot upon the cavern's floor.

That record was about to be broken. The Fourteenth Angel had picked the worst possible time to attack, Misato mused. With Unit Zero still damaged from the battle and everyone still reeling from the Thirteenth Angel, NERV hadn't been this ill-prepared for a confrontation since the Third Angel had forced them to essentially blackmail Shinji into the entry plug.

But Shinji wasn't here any longer. Shinji had resigned from NERV.

"What is the status of Rei and Unit One?" Gendo's voice sounded out, and though it was not particularly loud, it cut through the chaos that was consuming the command center like a knife.

"The First Child can't sync with it, sir!" Maya replied.

"Is it rejecting her?" Gendo asked, not sounding very surprised or even disturbed by this development.

It didn't exactly shock him that Yui was rather displeased by what had happened during the last battle. However, Gendo wasn't truly worried; Unit One would still work for Shinji, and he had faith Shinji would return. Not because he had faith in the boy's courage or any other stupidly romantic ideal; Gendo was simply certain that his careful manipulation of his son had caused the boy to need Unit One. Shinji's sense of self had become too strongly linked to the purple destroyer.

"Negative, it's just not activating," Aoba said. "We're reading no brainwaves from the EVA, or any chemical or electrical reactions within it. It's as though Unit One is dead."

_That_ surprised and disturbed the Commander of NERV; being rejected by Unit One was one thing, but complete unresponsiveness was quite another.

Also, he didn't much care for the lieutenant's choice of words. Gendo directed a steely glare down at the long-haired technician, who almost immediately quailed under the Commander's gaze, regardless of not knowing why was on the receiving end of it.

"Fuyutski," Gendo said, rising abruptly from his chair. "Take the conn."

"Yes, sir," Fuyutski replied.

With a curt nod, Gendo left the command center, heading down toward the EVA cages.

* * *

"Let's go, Asuka," the Second Child whispered to herself within the confines of her entry plug.

This was it, this was the moment she'd been waiting for. Now it was just her and the most powerful Angel that NERV had yet to face.

Now it was time to see if ten years of training and a childhood sacrificed to preparing for this war had really paid off, or if she was as useless next to the Third Child as she knew people whispered.

A patch of the ceiling suddenly exploded in a burst of orange flame, and the Angel of Might began to descend into the Geofront. It was very vaguely humanoid, with a bulky black-and-white body, short legs, stumpy little arms, and a skull-like face.

Asuka wasted no time in raising the two pallet rifles she held in Unit Two's hands and depressing the triggers. Shells that were normally reserved for the main guns of heavy tanks burst out, forming a nearly solid stream of metal death.

If the Angel noticed these shells bouncing off its armored hide, it gave no sign of it. Instead, it simply continued to slowly approach as it levitated itself downwards, as inexorable as death.

All too soon, Asuka's rifles clicked empty. "Damn," she cursed. "Next."

A weapons cache had been brought out for her, and she grabbed another pair of rifles and let loose with these as well. However, they had about as much effect as the first ones did.

"Next!" Asuka growled, this time opting for something a little more high-caliber.

Unit Two grabbed a pair of Evangelion-scale rocket launchers and began firing off missiles large enough to single-handedly level an entire small town or village the Angel.

"What's wrong?!" Asuka exclaimed. "I'm neutralizing its AT Field, aren't I? Damn it, I can't lose again!"

The rockets impacted the Angel, erupting into great balls of orange fire, large enough to conceal the Angel's form. Asuka held her breath, and for a short moment, she dared to believe that she might have killed it, or at least hurt it.

Then the explosions dissipated, revealing the unscathed form of the Fourteenth Angel. Asuka felt her heart plummet in her chest.

Then the Angel's tiny arms unfurled, becoming long and thin. The twin bands of white material shot out, and Asuka screamed as she felt pain erupt from her shoulders. Unit Two's arms fell to the ground, and blood spurted out of the wounds in high pressure jets.

The pain ignited Asuka's rage, which she embraced gladly.

"Damn you!" she roared, sending Unit Two into a sprint toward her enemy. "I'll kill you!"

Lost in her pain and anger as she was, Asuka never did notice the flare of light that formed off to the side of the battle.

* * *

The new Dr. Fate did not expect to find a battle raging when she arrived within the Geofront, never mind one where an Evangelion was performing a nearly-suicidal charge against an Angel.

However, surprised or not, she immediately swung into action, because she knew there was a child the same age as her son within the red Evangelion. Someone who had suffered like her son had was in there, and the idea of not acting was utterly intolerable.

The sorceress raised her hands, and purple light glowed about them. With a grunt of effort, she sent the bolts of eldritch energy flying through the air. The beams slammed into the Angel's side, knocking it off balance. Its deadly arms _just_ missed the red Evangelion's neck, and the severely damaged war machine crashed into the Angel, sending them both falling to the ground with enough force to make the earth tremble.

The Angel seemed strangely unconcerned with the scarlet EVA that had just tackled it to the ground, and its paper-like arms shot out at the puny human who had dared to strike it.

"Spirit winds of Azagoth," Fate said, "arise!"

The new sorceress's feet left the ground and she shot into the air, the sunlight that was reflected down into the Geofront glinting off her golden helm. The Angel's arms missed their mark entirely.

"Missed me!" Fate shouted, raising her hands. "Now it's my turn again! Silver spikes of Sharudim, fly!"

Over a dozen barbs of shining metal formed in midair above Fate's hand. The sorceress lowered her hands, and the spikes soared, impacting against the Angel's tough hide, where they exploded brilliantly.

The beast roared and threw the red Evangelion off as it righted itself, its vacant eye sockets filling with a malevolent light. Fate's eyes widened behind her helm.

"Jaduan shield!" she bellowed, a protective barrier of yellow light forming around her just as a cross-shaped blast of energy washed over her.

Even the power of Fate was insufficient to entirely block the colossally-powerful blast, and she went flying wildly through the air before she was able to regain her stability.

"Ugh," she groaned, reached up a hand to rub her head and feeling surprised when she found the helmet blocking her.

The sound of screams caused her to turn her head, and she saw that the Angel's attack appeared to have breached one of the shelters. Fortunately, it looked like no one had actually been hurt, but people were pouring out, in search of another sanctuary. Content that they were fine, Fate turned her attention back to the Angel, just missing as a certain teenage boy emerged from the throng of people and happened to encounter a man who was tending to a melon patch.

"Jaduan spears!" she yelled, and several lances of burning magical energy came into existence, "Volley!"

The magical bolts of flame crashed into the Angel and exploded spectacularly, evicting a roar from the Angel. This time Fate was prepared for its retaliation and flew high above the Angel, drawing its attack away from the ground and the civilians on it. It fired its cross blast. Fate managed to dodge, but only barely.

"Die, you monster!" Fate shouted, blasting the Angel with more bolts of magical energy.

Dr. Fate and the Angel dueled for some minutes, the former too quick and too small to be destroyed and the latter simply too heavily armored to be killed. The battle appeared futile on both sides.

_This isn't working,_ Fate thought, her frustration mounting. _If only I had some time…_

Then Unit Two rejoined the clash. The Second Child had had difficulty getting her war machine back to its feet without the aid of arms, but she'd finally managed to do it. With a roar, Asuka struck the Angel with a savage spinning kick, sending it staggering.

Seeing the opportunity this presented her, Fate raised her arms and channeled as much magical power as she dared. Ankhs made of golden light surrounded her, and Fate gritted her teeth beneath her helmet with the effort of controlling all the power she had called up.

Then, golden light flared around Unit Two. Asuka shouted in surprise, but her cry quickly cut off as the light suddenly coalesced into a new pair of arms for her Evangelion. She opened and closed her EVA's right fist a few times before she decided not to bother questioning what had just happened.

"Take _this!_" the Second Child roared, sending her EVA's golden fist crashing into the side of the Angel's face.

_Hopefully she'll be able to keep the Angel busy long enough for me to pull this off,_ Fate thought.

Then she concentrated, and the air around her became illuminated by things that looked nothing like ankhs at all as she prepared for a very special spell. It was a spell that the previous Dr. Fate couldn't have performed, because he didn't have the in-depth knowledge of the AT Field and the Angels that she did.

* * *

Meanwhile, Shinji Ikari was sprinting into an EVA cage, but not just any EVA cage. It was the place where it had all started; the place where his life had lost any semblance of sanity.

He had to be insane to come back, but Kaji had made him realize that if he didn't do everything he could to stop this Angel, he would regret it forever.

He was already messed up enough without that kind of guilt.

"Why are you here?"

Shinji looked and saw his father standing in the small room above him, which was exactly where he'd been that night.

"Let me pilot!" Shinji gasped out, panting from having run all the way to the cage. "Let me pilot Unit One!"

"Unit One has been completely unresponsive to all our attempts to activate it," Gendo replied. "What makes you think—"

He was cut off as one of the monitors that lined the wall next to him suddenly changed, displaying Fuyutski's image. "Sir," the old man said, "there's something you need to see."

"Not now," Gendo said coldly.

"Sir, you _really_ need to see this," the Vice Commander pressed.

Slowly, reluctantly, Gendo turned his head to regard the image of his second in command. "Whatever it is, it has to wait," he said. "The Angel—"

"Looks like it's being taken care of," Fuyutski interrupted again. "Sir, you need to see this. _Now._"

"Fine," Gendo said, "I'll be right there."

He walked off then, disappearing from the cage without a word to his son. Baffled, Shinji hesitated for a moment, and then began to head toward the command center.

* * *

"Fuyutski," Gendo said as he walked onto the top tier of the command center.

Most people wouldn't have been able to tell, but the Commander of NERV was practically furious at being pulled away at such a critical moment. If Fuyutski didn't have a very good reason for calling him, Gendo would have _words_ with him in the future.

"This… mystery woman has joined the battle," the Vice Commander said. "At first she was fighting the Angel, then she repaired Unit Two. Now…"

Rather than try and explain, Fuyutski pressed a few buttons on the Commander's chair. A two-dimensional holographic image appeared, showing a close-up view of the golden-helmed superwoman and the glowing symbols that by now surrounded her.

"Impossible," Gendo whispered, for once showing shock. "Those are—"

"Parts of the Sephirotic saga," Fuyutski finished for him. "And equations from the theories on AT fields."

* * *

_I'm winning!_ Asuka thought, filled with heady excitement as her EVA's fist slammed into the Angel's bony face again, causing it to go reeling. _I'm winning! I'm—_

All of a sudden, the Angel's thin arms shot out, wrapping themselves around Unit Two's legs. Asuka barely had time to register what was happening before the Angel pulled sharply, sending Unit Two sprawling onto its back.

The Second Child would forever maintain that she had not necessarily been defeated then, and she would forever believe it, too. Certainly, she intended to do everything in her power to regain the upper hand; Asuka Langley Soryu never surrendered.

However, even she had to admit that it was bad spot she'd so abruptly found herself in. Her EVA's legs were still all tangled up, Unit Two was on its back, and the Angel loomed over her, its eye sockets burning with deadly white light.

So it was fortunate that the new Dr. Fate had finally finished preparing for her spell.

"Sacred light of the soul," the sorceress shouted, "_be gone!_"

Asuka watched as the Angel suddenly paused and staggered backwards away from its intended target. It fired one final cross blast harmlessly in the sky, and then it just _exploded_.

No, Asuka realized, it hadn't exploded. The entire thing, core and all, had been instantly and completely _liquefied_, turning into an orange substance that splashed down to the ground, soaking the earth with a great deluge.

"What the hell?" she muttered as she forced Unit Two to sit up.

As she watched, an ankh made from golden light appeared in the air by the woman in the golden helmet, and she stepped into it and disappeared.

Asuka suddenly felt renewed pain explode by her shoulders, and she looked at her EVA to realize that the arms made of golden light were gone, and her Unit Two was once more bleeding freely.

Grimacing, the Second Child pulled a lever that caused her plug to eject halfway out of the cavity in her EVA's body. This had the effect of immediately causing her to de-synch, which brought an end to the sympathetic pain.

Asuka opened her plug hatch and stood up into the open air, expelling the LCL from her lungs. "Most messed up battle _ever_," she declared.

* * *

"What the hell just happened to the Angel?" Misato demanded.

"It looks like that woman somehow managed to neutralize its AT Field somehow," Ritsuko replied, looking shocked.

"Wasn't its AT Field already neutralized because of its contact with Unit Two?" Misato asked.

Ritsuko shook her head. "No," she answered. "Unit Two's AT Field and the Angel's weakened—eroded—one another to the point that they aren't relevant to the battle any longer, but they were still there. There's a big difference between eroding an AT Field and truly neutralizing it."

"Where did that woman go?" Gendo demanded.

"Unknown, sir," Aoba answered him. "We can't pick up any readings on her. It looks like she just disappeared."

"Wait," Makoto said. "I think I—"

Suddenly, golden light flared within the command center, as a large ankh formed by the top tier of the structure. Their mystery woman stepped out of it and it disappeared.

"Gendo," the woman said, her voice echoing from within her helmet and sounding powerful and menacing.

"Who are you?" the Commander demanded, carefully concealing his reaction to this woman.

For reasons he couldn't comprehend, Gendo Ikari, one of the coldest men on the planet, felt a powerful wave of attraction sweep over him now that he stood mere feet away from the woman. The body suit the woman was wearing, which was mostly blue, save for the torso, which was gold, hugged her figure, but he was not a man so easily impressed. He also didn't have a thing for boots, gloves, capes, or helmets, so his reaction mystified him.

"I am Doctor Fate," the woman said, "but you know me by a different name, Ikari."

She reached up with both hands and grabbed her helmet, then began to lift it off her head. The gold seemed to stretch and warp before it finally came off of her, and as it did, the costume of Dr. Fate was transformed into a simple skirt, blouse, and white lab coat.

The normally unflappable Gendo Ikari gasped aloud, his eyes threatening to pop out of his sockets. "Yui-chan…"

"Don't you '-chan' me!"

Yui backhanded him, putting every ounce of strength she possessed behind the blow. Gendo was sent staggering, and when he recovered his balance, he rubbed the place where she'd hit him, a look of dumb shock written all over his face.

"You're a damned monster!" Yui roared. "Torturing our son for your own desires, using people as though they were pieces in a game of chess, planning to _destroy the world_ so you could get what you wanted! I don't know what happened to the man I married, but you're not him!"

"B-But Yui, can't you see that everything I've done, I've done for you?" Gendo pleaded desperately.

"_Bullshit!_" Yui snarled. "Everything you've done has been for _you!_ You couldn't handle the pain of losing me, so you decided you'd get me back, regardless of what it cost anyone, even Shinji!"

"Yui, please," Gendo moaned.

Her eyes hard and pitiless, Yui placed the helm over her head again, and with a puff of smoke, Dr. Fate came back to the fore. She reached out and grabbed hold of Gendo's shirt, then lifted him off his feet with magically-enhanced strength.

"You thought that you would initiate Third Impact and use the power of it to cheat death?" she asked. "You thought that you would be with me forever in perpetual bliss?"

"Yes," Gendo breathed.

The sorceress shook her head. "That is not your fate, _Rokubungi_."

It was at this precise moment that one of the doors to the command center opened, and Shinji Ikari stepped out onto the middle tier, having needed significantly longer to arrive there because he'd been exhausted from his earlier sprint and didn't have the shortcuts available to him that his father did.

"Shinji-kun!" Fate exclaimed.

The sorceress carelessly dropped her husband, who collapsed limply to the floor. Then Fate flew down from the top tier to the middle one and, before Shinji even saw her coming, swept him up into a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, my baby, you don't know how much I've missed you! I'm so sorry I left you! I'll never leave again, I promise! Oh, I'm so sorry about everything you've had to endure because of me and your father! I'm going to make everything right! I promise I will!" Fate gushed, not loosening her hold of the very stunned boy for even a moment.

Shinji looked at the woman who was joyfully squeezing the life out of him, then up at his father, who was laying on the floor of the tier above him and actually appeared to be quietly _weeping_.

"Uh, can someone tell me what I missed?" he asked.

The assembled bridge crew all traded glances with one another, none of them really knowing quite how to begin answering that.

* * *

The debriefing that followed the battle against the Fourteenth Angel was unsurprisingly long. Yui explained _everything_ to the pilots and NERV's senior staff, holding back no details. Those who had been kept in the dark to all the Commander's grisly business were shocked, horrified, and more than a little disbelieving that anything like Gendo's scenario could have been playing out right under their noses.

However, Fuyutski vouched for the veracity of Yui's claims, looking older and more tired than anyone had ever seen him as he did so. Ritsuko also added her testimony, and since Gendo made no effort to defend himself, everyone had little choice but to believe the whole story.

"Wow, this is… a lot to take in," Misato said.

"Believe me, I understand how you feel," Fuyutski said, remembering all too well what he'd experienced the first time he'd been led down into the bowels of what had then been GEHRIN.

"I think everybody's going to need time to digest all this," Misato said, "but I also think that there are two things we can all agree upon right now. First, we have to stop the end of the world from happening. And second, the Commander needs to be relocated to a holding cell."

No one voiced any disagreement.

"We'll need to legally charge him with something soon, but we'll figure that out later," Misato said, rubbing her forehead.

"That's not something that can be left undone for very long," Fuyutski cautioned.

"I know that, and I don't intend to procrastinate for long, but my brain feels like jelly after learning all that," Misato said. "Shigeru, Hyuga, could you escort the Commander down to the cell block?"

The two technicians nodded, soon leaving with the docile and silent Gendo Ikari.

"Preventing the end of the world won't be an easy thing," Fuyutski said. "Even destroying both Adam and Lilith wouldn't make a man-made Third Impact a complete impossibility. And SEELE has tremendous resources at their disposal."

"True," Yui conceded, "but there's one thing that we have on our side that they don't."

"And that is?" Akagi asked.

Yui smiled and touched her helmet, which sat on the conference table before her. "Fate," she said.

The Operations Director nodded. "We've been here for hours now," she said, stifling a yawn. "I think this little meeting was enough trading notes for one day."

Everyone was only too happy to agree to this and began to file out of the room, most of them still looking dazed by what they'd learned.

"Professor, Dr. Akagi, could you stay for a minute?" Yui asked. "I'd like a quick word with you two in private."

Fuyutski and Akagi nodded, the former with a look of weary resignation, and the latter with a grimace.

"You two were basically Gendo's inner circle," Yui said once everyone else was gone. "You knew about his plans and went along with them anyway."

Ritsuko opened her mouth to say something, but Yui calmly held up a hand. "I'm not condemning you," she said. "It's not my place. I just need to know if you're going to be with the rest of us on this."

The Vice Commander and the bottle blonde exchanged a brief glance.

"I'm with you, Yui," Fuyutski said.

"Hell, you probably did me a favor by unseating Gendo," Akagi added, a bitter smile slowly appearing on her face.

Yui nodded, "I'm glad to have you with us," she said. "We're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to stop SEELE."

* * *

Hours later, while the members of NERV worked either on the post-battle clean-up or tried to figure out how to thwart SEELE, Gendo Ikari sat silently within his little confinement cell. The room was pitch-dark, meant to make whoever was unfortunate enough to be trapped inside of one to suffer from sensory deprivation. However, it would have made little difference if there was light; Gendo still would have been staring at nothing.

The once-mighty Commander of NERV was a broken man.

Suddenly, some interminable amount of time after he'd been placed into the cell, two points of red light formed to Gendo's right. They weren't bright; if they were more orange, they could have passed for the ends of two lit cigarettes. However, in the otherwise total darkness, they were as obvious as spotlights.

Then there was a _fphh!_ sound like the lighting of a flare, and a ball of tumbling blue flames appeared. Said flames were suspended above the palm of a demonic being with blue skin, long black talons, and glowing red eyes. The demon wore a horned helmet, battle armor, and a long loincloth.

Just about anyone who found themselves confronted with such a sight would have immediately entered into a state of high panic. Gendo barely turned his head to regard the demon.

"Gendo Ikari," the demon said, revealing pointed black fangs as he spoke. "Greetings."

"Who are you?" Gendo asked. "What do you want?"

"I am known as Negal of Charn," the demon introduced himself. "I exist to feed off of human misery."

"Have you come to feed off of me, then?" Gendo asked, not much caring whether the demon had or not.

"No, not at all," Negal replied, his mouth stretching into a profoundly disturbing grin. "In fact, I'm here to help you."

"I am beyond help now," Gendo replied coldly. "My goal in unachievable, and in any case, why would you help me?"

"You could say that I'm a fan of yours. Some of the misery you've caused, especially for your son, well…" Negal trailed off, the faraway look of a wine connoisseur recalling a particularly fine vintage appearing in his eyes. "It's been exquisite."

Gendo grunted. "As I said, though, I am beyond your help. All I ever wanted was Yui, and now she's rejected me."

"Your wife's mind has been clouded by the power of Fate, and her predecessor's influence," Negal said. "With my assistance, you can make her see things clearly again, and be with her in ways that are impossible for normal mortals."

Gendo Ikari was not a stupid man; if he were, he never would have risen to become the master of NERV Central, nor would he have been able to keep SEELE largely ignorant of his own agenda. And Negal's offer would have looked suspicious to men who were far less brilliant than he.

However, Gendo Ikari _was_ a desperate man, desperate for any kind of hope that he could still have what he had labored over a decade for. Such deep desperation, such intense desire, could blunt the intellect of even the most clever and wary of men.

Besides, as it stood, Gendo felt himself a man with nothing left to lose.

"I'm listening," he said.

* * *

Author's Notes: Yes, I realize these things are supposed to be one shots, but this was getting pretty long, and this just seemed like too good a place to stop, so I decided to make it a two-parter. Don't worry, I intend for the second half of this story to be the next thing I do.

I was kind of hesitant to portray Yui as being so angsty and as having been more or less in on SEELE and Gendo's plans before she was absorbed. However, I can't see someone in her position as _not_ swimming in guilt (plus, she _is_ related to Shinji), and I never bought the idea that she could be married to Gendo, a top GEHRIN scientist, and the first test pilot for Unit One and still be oblivious to what was going on. It always seemed to me like she was too deeply involved in it all to have been totally innocent.

Anyway, I chose Dr. Fate for Yui for a couple of reasons. I was initially blanking on who she should be, and orionpax09 suggested Captain Marvel, because he gets his powers (mostly) from the Greek gods, and it would kind of fit, since Rei is cloned partly from Yui and Rei's Wonder Girl in SOE2. However, Captain Marvel's mythos doesn't actually gel too well with Wonder Woman's (small surprise, considering that Captain Marvel started off in Fawcett comics and was only later folded into the DC universe), and besides, a lot of Captain Marvel's appeal is, I think, from the wish-fulfillment aspect of having a kid who can transform into an adult superhero.

So Captain Marvel was out, but I did like the idea of making Yui a hero who had a connection to the gods. Fate qualifies, although he's all about the Egyptian pantheon. He was also a founding member of the Justice Society—the older generation of superheroes in the DCU—so it seemed appropriate for one of the mothers. Add in that his amulet can act as a repository for souls, and one other rather unique aspect of Fate I won't mention here, and I was sold.

Anyway, in part two, Gendo makes his last, desperate gambit, and Shinji actually gets to do something.

So, enough of my rambling. Thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader.

* * *

Omakes!

A Lighter Farewell

They were in a stone chamber which was part of a much larger structure. Egyptian artifacts packed the room, and a large, four poster bed sat in one corner. Beyond the large doorway was an absolute maze of tunnels and staircases. It reminded Yui of a painting she'd seen once, '_Relativity'._

"Where are we?" she asked.

"My tower," Fate replied. "Though I suppose it is your tower now. You will be able to navigate it with the aid of the helm's powers. Speaking of which…"

Dr. Fate reached up and grabbed the Helm of Nabu with both hands, then pulled upwards. Yui watched with fascination as the metal seemed to warp and twist before her eyes before suddenly relinquishing its hold upon its wearer and reverting to its original shape.

And with it gone, she finally got to see Kent Nelson.

The man was utterly ancient. However, his age surprised Yui less than his attire. Kent Nelson was wearing khaki shorts, sandals, a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt, and a fishing cap.

"Here, kid," he said, shoving the helmet at her, which Yui took.

Before his successor could even think up a comment, an old woman appeared from another room. She was dressed just as outlandishly in a grass hula skirt and another Hawaiian shirt, which was just as loud as Kent's.

"Are you finally ready, dear?" she asked him.

"You bet I am, Inza!" Kent said enthusiastically. "Finally, glorious retirement!"

"Uh, Kent…" Yui spoke up.

"Hmm? Oh, right," Kent said, turning his attention back to her. "Listen, kid, if you need my help, I'll be in Miami-3. But no showing up between ten and eleven at night. That's happy hour. In fact, do your best not to need my help at all, okay?"

"Uh, okay," Yui agreed.

"Beautiful!" Kent said. "Inza, let's be off!"

He took his wife's hand, and an ankh-shaped portal appeared a moment later.

"Toodles!" Kent said, then walked through the light with Inza. The portal closed immediately afterwards.

Suddenly alone, Yui looked down at the golden helm in her hands and sighed. "I'm not sure whether he's more eccentric with this thing on or off," she grumbled.

* * *

Desperate Measures

"Gendo," the woman said, her voice echoing from within her helmet and sounding powerful and menacing.

"Who are you?" the Commander demanded, carefully concealing his reaction to this woman.

"I am Doctor Fate," the woman said, "but you know me by a different name, Ikari."

She reached up with both hands and grabbed her helmet, then attempted to lift it off her head. However, the golden helm refused to budge from its place on her head.

"Argh, damn it, why won't this come off?" Fate grumbled. "Nabu, are you afraid I won't put it back on, because I will, you know!"

Everyone sweat dropped as they watched the mystery woman wrestle unsuccessfully with her helmet.

It was at this precise moment that one of the doors to the command center opened, and Shinji Ikari stepped out onto the middle tier.

"Shinji-kun!" Fate exclaimed.

Fate flew down from the top tier to the middle one and, before Shinji even saw her coming, swept him up into a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, my baby, you don't know how much I've missed you! I'm so sorry I left you! I'll never leave again, I promise! Oh, I'm so sorry about everything you've had to endure because of me and your father! I'm going to make everything right! I promise I will!" Fate gushed.

"Wh-What's going on?" Shinji stammered. "Who are you?"

"That's an excellent question," Gendo spoke up, "who _are_ you, woman?"

Fate's demeanor instantly chilled as the Commander regained her attention.

"I'm your wife, you monster!" Fate exclaimed.

"My wife is dead," Gendo said coldly.

"Damn it, I'm Yui Ikari, and I can prove it!" Fate shouted.

"I truly doubt that," Gendo replied dryly.

"Yeah, much as I'd like to believe my mother is back, I really don't see how that's possible," Shinji added.

"Oh, yeah!?" Fate retorted. "Gendo, on the night of our honeymoon, you got so anxious about the prospect of disappointing me in bed that you took ten 'performance enhancement' pills, and then spent the whole night worshipping the porcelain god because of your moronic overdose."

Gendo paled. The assembled bridge staff stifled snickers.

"And Shinji, when you were four you had stuffed animal you named Mr. Snugglepus!" Fate added.

"Mr. Snugglepus!" Asuka exclaimed, laughing. "Only you, Third Child!"

"Asuka?!" Shinji shrieked. "Shouldn't you still be outside?! How did you get in here so fast?"

The redhead shrugged. "Plot hole. It's an omake."

"Gendo!" Fate said. "The _reason_ you overdosed on little blue pills was because the week before our wedding, you lasted approximately 2.73 seconds in bed!"

Gendo hung his head. A few of the people present couldn't help but release a few chuckles.

"Shinji! When you were three, we took you boating on a lake and you fell in, and for some reason, you wet the bed every night for a week after that!"

Asuka started laughing so hard that she collapsed and started rolling around on the floor.

"And I know more!" Fate said.

"NO!" Shinji and Gendo shouted in unison. "WE BELIEVE YOU!"

Fate smiled beneath her helmet.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Two:** Final Fate

Shinji Ikari felt that he should be giddy. After all, his long lost mother had been abruptly returned to him, an elaborate scheme that would have hurt everyone (but him especially) had been exposed, and the world in general just seemed like a less messed up place than it had yesterday.

Yes, he really should have been thrilled. He should have been skipping through the halls of the base and grinning like an idiot. Instead, he was sitting in one of the corridors, his back propped up against the wall and feeling numb with shock. Indeed, Shinji had felt utterly shell-shocked from the moment he'd found out his mother was alive and had returned, and he had remained so all through the debriefing and beyond. He supposed that was normal enough, but his surprise was slowly starting to erode, and it wasn't euphoria that lay beneath it. It was apprehension.

Somehow, he was certain that it was all going to go wrong. Perhaps something would happen to smash his new chance at happiness, or perhaps his mother would prove to be little better than his father. She had, after all, once condoned the horrible scenario his father and SEELE had hatched.

_But she stopped,_ he thought. _She realized it was wrong, and she never did any of those horrible things herself. She just…knew they were happening. Wouldn't it be foolish to hate my own mother for something she doesn't believe in anymore? It's not like I never made a mistake...though none of them were ever quite like that._

Shinji shook his head, which seemed to be filled past capacity with hundreds of thousands of whirling thoughts. It was all just too much, and the future, which should have looked brighter to him, appeared more intimidating than ever.

He didn't know what would happen, but he was afraid to be happy all the same.

_Only I could feel like this right now,_ he thought morosely. _I'm so messed up._

He sighed and leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes.

"Shinji-kun."

Startled, Shinji's head snapped forward and his eyes popped open. His mother was approaching him.

"Oh, Mother!" Shinji greeted her, forcing a smile, and feeling terrible about having to do so.

She was wearing normal clothes, but that amulet was still sitting around her neck, and she was carrying the helmet with her in one hand, almost carelessly. The pieces of gold made it impossible to forget about the fantastic transformation she could undergo.

Yui went down to one knee so that she was roughly eye level with her son, and Shinji suddenly realized that she looked like she was in her twenties. He guessed it was more or less natural that she'd come out of EVA the same age she went in, but it made her look too young to be his mother. It was weird.

"What are you doing here, Shinji-kun?" she asked gently.

"Huh, oh, I…uh…" he stammered, desperately searching for some kind of explanation that wouldn't make him look displeased at her reappearance.

"It's all right, you don't have to tell me," Yui said eventually, then she smiled sadly. "I guess it's going to be a while before we have the kind of relationship that a mother and her son should have."

"Mother…" Shinji spoke, then trailed off, not knowing quite what to say.

"Come on, Shinji-kun," Yui said. "Why don't we go get something to eat and talk for a while? I want to hear all about your life."

"Uh, shouldn't you still be working on figuring out what to do about SEELE?" Shinji asked, then realized that it might sound as if he didn't want to spend time with her.

He shouldn't feel so awkward around his own mother.

"Someone else can do that," Yui said. "You're more important."

Shinji smiled, a genuine smile this time, and got to his feet. Mother and son made their way toward the base's commissary together.

* * *

"Dr. Fate was never meant to be just one person," Negal said.

"What do you mean?" Gendo asked.

"Fate was always meant to be two people, a man and a woman, bound together by the power of the helmet," Negal explained. "Only through such a union can Fate ever achieve his true potential. However, the creator of the helm kept this secret, because it would deny him any control over his champion."

"I see," Gendo said, trying to keep his voice level, but the demon could see the light shining in the man's usually cold eyes and could practically hear the wheels turning in his keen mind.

"When two people are united by the power of Fate, all the boundaries between them fall," Negal said. "It is togetherness like no other. If your wife was so bonded with you, it would be impossible for her to not see how brightly your love for her still burns."

"You've captured my interest," Gendo finally admitted. "Now, what is the price for helping me achieve this union?"

"Nothing much," Negal said, fingering the war hammer he held. "The previous Dr. Fate was a powerful enemy of mine. I simply wish for your word that you will never move against me when you're Fate."

"Done," Gendo said.

Negal smiled. "Good," he said. "Oh, one final condition: you cannot allow it to be known that I was the one who aided you. If Fate discovers it was me, and she defeats you…"

"I will not fail," Gendo said.

"Let us hope not," Negal replied.

Blue flames suddenly came into being around Gendo, but they did not burn him. The former commander of NERV closed his eyes and stood still as they enveloped his entire body.

Minutes later, the heavily armored door to his confinement cell was blown off its steel hinges by a blast of demonic flame.

* * *

"Well, the food here is every bit as bad as I remembered it," Yui declared as she and her son spoke over a light snack. "I wasn't sure that was even possible."

"Yeah, it's pretty bad," Shinji agreed with a weak smile.

Awkward silence followed. Yui quickly moved to break it. "So, tell me about yourself, Shinji-kun," she said. "I really don't know much about you outside of your role as the Third Child."

"There's really not much else to me," Shinji said bashfully.

"Nonsense," Yui said at once. "How are you doing in school? Do you have any hobbies? Is there a special lady in your life?"

The last question caused Shinji to blush. "M-Mother!" he sputtered.

Yui grinned. "Shinji-kun, I'm your mother. I'm going to be interested in your life, including that part of it," she said. "_Especially_ that part of it. You're just going to have to get used to it."

He sighed ruefully, though part of him had to admit the attention was actually kind of nice, in a weird sort of way. "Uh, I'm doing okay in school," he said, which was perhaps an exaggeration, so he quickly continued, "I play the cello, and no, I don't have a girlfriend."

"I'm surprised," Yui said. "I'd think that a young man as handsome as you would be beating the girls off with a stick."

"Um, can we talk about something else?" Shinji asked, squirming embarrassedly in his seat.

Smiling, Yui relented. "So, you said you played the cello. Did you know that I played, too?"

Shinji nodded. "Yes, in fact, the reason I play is because Uncle gave me your cello and said I should start learning."

"So do you enjoy it?" Yui asked.

"Yeah, I guess so," Shinji said.

"There's something you want to ask me, isn't there?" Yui asked after another moment of silence.

Shinji nodded.

"Go ahead," Yui said. "You deserve to know. Ask."

"Why did you do it?" Shinji asked. "Why did you work on the Instrumentality Project?"

Yui had expected this question, of course, but it still caused her to sigh. "Shinji-kun…I don't know whether you feel the same way or not, but when I was younger, one of the things I wanted most was to make my life count for something," she said. "I wanted to do something big. Something important."

"Okay," Shinji said.

He didn't understand this compulsion; Shinji aspired to not make the world too much _worse_ because he was in it, which seemed difficult enough most of the time. However, he didn't want to divert the conversation away from his mother's narrative, so he didn't tell her this.

"The ideal behind the Instrumentality Project, well, it was about the creation of a whole new world," Yui said. "A world in which famine, disease, war, and death were nonexistent. Where loneliness and pain were nonexistent. Basically, bringing humanity back to Eden by changing all of us, so we'd be happy, safe, and blissfully content for all of eternity."

"It sounds nice," Shinji said quietly.

"Doesn't it?" Yui asked bitterly. "There were signs, even before I was absorbed, that Instrumentality might not be all it was cracked up to be, and the cost of making it happen only seemed to grow and grow. But the idea of making the world a paradise…I was obsessed with it, Shinji-kun. Even more so after you were born. I wanted to make the world perfect for my family. My intentions were good, but that just let me realize how true the old saying about the road to Hell is. I can only hope I can be forgiven for my stupidity."

"Mother, you…I…" Shinji said, but quickly trailed off, not knowing what to say.

The heavy silence came back.

This time Shinji broke it. "Mother, what's going to happen?" he asked. "Not with NERV and SEELE and the world and everything. I mean, with you."

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to find myself a place to live," Yui said, thinking that she did not want to reside within the daunting tower of fate. "I was hoping that you'd come and live with me, though I'd understand if you didn't want to leave Katsuragi. After all, she gave you a home when I couldn't, and your father wouldn't." She added in a sad voice.

"Mother…"

"Don't answer right now, Shinji-kun," Yui said. "Think about it for a while."

He nodded, and the wretched silence returned once more.

"I really did mean what I said before, Shinji-kun," Yui said abruptly. "I really do intend to make things right. I realize this whole thing must come as a shock, and knowing that I was once in on SEELE's plans can't exactly fill you with confidence about me, even knowing why I did it. But please, just give me a chance, like you gave your father one. I promise I won't throw it away like he did."

"I…I think I can do that," Shinji said with a small smile, which Yui returned.

"I'm glad. Maybe by the time I've found myself a place to live, you'll be ready to stay there with me. I'm not sure I'll have time for apartment hunting any time soon," Yui said. "Stopping SEELE is going to take up a lot of my time, and I also want to do some research into healing magic."

"Why?" Shinji asked.

"For your friend, of course," Yui answered.

Shinji blinked. "You think you can fix Toji's injuries?"

"I don't know," Yui admitted. "My predecessor didn't teach me any healing spells, but he was in a rush to give me what I needed to be Fate and pass the mantle. I think it should be possible. Fate is powerful."

Shinji smiled, and for the first time in what felt like a very long time, he believed that everything might turn out all right in the end.

This, of course, was when the alarms went off. Shinji and Yui traded a shocked look, and then quickly got up and began to run toward the command center.

"What's going on?" Yui asked as she and Shinji emerged onto the middle tier of the base's nerve center a few minutes later.

"The base seems to be under attack," a chagrined looking Fuyutski answered.

"Is SEELE making a move already?" Yui asked incredulously.

The men of that secret cabal were dangerous, no doubt, but she hadn't believed for a moment that they could react so quickly to the abrupt power shift within NERV, assuming they'd even learned of it yet.

"No, though I almost wish it was them," Misato answered. "They're coming from inside the base, and it looks like they breached the Commander's cell."

"Who are they?" Yui asked.

Rather than answer, Misato looked down at Aoba. "They're destroying the security cameras—and probably everything else—in their path, but I'll see if I can get a shot from one that's still working," the tech said, typing furiously at his keyboard as he did so.

A window soon popped up on the main screen showing one of the corridors that was under siege, and Yui's eyes widened as she saw it. The enemies who had invaded NERV were not human in nature, nor where they Angelic.

The screen showed a number of four legged beasts running through the halls of the base. They were vaguely dog-shaped, but no one would ever mistake them for man's best friend. Each one had bluish, leathery skin, misshapen heads, a pair of long horns, and far more teeth and claws than seemed necessary.

"Kent wasn't kidding about having to stop demons and things all the time," Yui said to herself, then turned her attention to Misato. "I'll take care of this. Stopping those things isn't a task for NERV security."

The Operations Director had expected as much, and had already evacuated the areas that the demons were tearing up.

"Good luck," she said.

"Be…be careful, Mother," Shinji said.

Yui smiled, and then again donned her golden helm.

* * *

Minutes later, Dr. Fate raced downwards through the corridors of NERV headquarters, her feet not even touching the floor as she went. She told herself that she was moving with such haste because the people who worked for the organization were all in great danger so long as demons were allowed to run free within the base, but that was only part of the reason.

In the face of all logic and everything her head was telling her, she was worried about Gendo. She would never forgive the man for what he'd done to their son, and perhaps it was just the good memories they'd had together influencing her, but she had no desire to see him torn to bits by otherworldly monsters, at least not after he'd already been defeated and rendered harmless.

She heard the growling on the demons before she saw them and slowed her pace, not wishing to rush right into an ambush. Peering carefully around a corner, Fate winced as she saw a pack of the demons tearing apart the remains of what had once been a NERV security guard.

"Infernal beasts!" she shouted as she showed herself. "You have no place on this world!"

The demons immediately left their old prey behind and started growling at her, each of them frothing at the mouth like a rabid dog. As one, they pounced at her, teeth and claws flashing under the hallway's bright fluorescent lights.

"Jaduan shield!" Fate shouted.

A barrier of golden light formed in front of her, and the demons crashed into it rather than her, then went falling to the floor, growling and glaring at her hatefully.

"You will return to whatever pit of a realm you crawled out of!" the sorceress yelled, yellow light appearing around her hands. "So Fate commands!"

Golden radiance enveloped the demons, all of which released cries of pain, and then their bodies appeared to disintegrate as they were banished back to their home realm. Fate put her hands down and nodded in satisfaction.

Yet before she could continue on, more growls sounded, and Fate looked around to see that more of the vaguely canine demons were approaching her from either end of the corridor.

"You dare challenge Fate?" she snapped. "Be gone, all of you!"

Blasts of magical energy burst from both of her hands, one going down either end of the hallway and incinerating every demonic beast in its path.

"Are there any others here who wish to test the power of Fate?" the sorceress demanded. "If so, step forward!"

At first, only silence greeted her. Fate was about to move on when she heard the sound of heavy footfalls. Another demon, this one similar to the others but the size of horse, emerged from around a corner, and upon its back rode—

"Gendo?!" Fate exclaimed, her eyes widening.

The former commander of NERV was clad in a black outfit, over which was a chain mail vest made from some blue metal. The orange lenses of his glasses had been replaced with black ones, and he held a war hammer that appeared to be made of bone in one hand.

"Hello, Yui-chan," he greeted her in a serious tone.

She considered reminding him again that he no longer had any right to call her "-chan" but quickly discarded the idea. There were more important issues to be addressed.

"What have you done, Rokubungi?" she demanded.

The sound of his old surname caused Gendo to sigh in a long suffering sort of way. "I'm only doing what I need to do to make you come to your senses, Yui-chan," he said.

"You want to make _me_ to come to _my_ senses?" Fate demanded. "_You're_ the one who's deluded, Rokubungi!"

"Are you sure?" Gendo asked. "Listen to yourself, Yui. You sound _nothing_ like yourself. That helmet has changed you."

"Perhaps I behave a little differently while I wear it," Fate conceded, "But I'm still me beneath it. You're _nothing_ like the man I once knew. Now surrender. If you make me fight you, I won't hold back."

"I'm sorry, Yui-chan, but I can't do that," Gendo said.

With that, he raised the hammer he held. Blue flames burst into being around the head of the deadly weapon and shot out toward Fate. The sorceress was so shocked that her husband was actually attacking her that she was barely able to conjure a barrier to block the strike in time, and the force of the blow sent her staggering.

Before she could regain her equilibrium, tendrils made from some kind of black sludge burst out of a nearby ventilation grate. Fate let out a gasp and tried to dodge, but they were far too quick, and wrapped themselves around her wrists and ankles.

"Whatever you are, release me, _now_!" Fate shouted as she struggled against her bonds.

"I don't think liquefied human misery responds to threats, Yui-chan," Gendo said as he dismounted from his demonic steed. "I don't remember you ever being so loud and angry. Fate's influence must havechanged you even more than I'd believed."

"What are you doing?" Fate demanded as Gendo approached her.

"Making things right," Gendo answered, grabbing hold of the amulet of Anubis around her neck.

"No!" Fate shouted. "Don't do—"

Gendo pulled the amulet up over her head, and Fate immediately went limp in the black tendrils' clutches, the better part of her soul now separate from her body.

"Don't worry, Yui-chan," Gendo said as he placed the amulet around his own neck. "Soon we'll be together again. Soon, you'll understand everything."

With that, he grabbed the golden helmet on Fate's head and easily removed it. Gendo took a deep breath and whispered, "I love you, Yui-chan."

Then he jammed the helmet over his own head.

The effects were instantaneous. The sound of screams from two different people—one male and one female—erupted from within the helm, while golden light shot forth from the bottom and the eyeholes of the powerful relic, as though a minuature sun was housed within it.

Gendo went staggering and quickly fell to the floor, where he lay motionless.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the command center, a heavy silence fell. Everyone had been watching Dr. Fate do her thing via one of the few intact security cameras in the area, and it had seemed like it was just a matter of time until NERV was demon-free.

That was, until Gendo had made his appearance.

"I don't know anything about magic," Misato said as she looked at the motionless forms of Yui and Gendo on the main screen, "but I'd say that isn't good."

"I'd say you're right," Maya agreed in a grim tone.

"Then it looks like there's only one thing to do," the Operations Director said. "I want a squad of our security forces assembled on the double. We'll have to repel this attack ourselves."

"Should I tell them to make sure they're carrying their silver bullets?" Aoba asked sarcastically.

Misato glared at the long haired tech. "No. Tell them to get the biggest guns from the armory that they can find."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Uh, Major?" Makoto spoke up. "Did you send Shinji somewhere?"

"What?" Misato said, turning her head this way and that as she searched for her charge, only to fail to locate him.

He wasn't on the command center anymore, though she was sure he had been a minute ago. She'd seen him there right before Dr. Fate had started to tangle with Gendo.

This, of course, added up to one inescapable, and very unpleasant, conclusion.

"Shinji's going there!" Misato exclaimed, pointing at the image of Gendo and Yui's unconscious forms on the main screen. "Find him, and send security to stop him!"

"It's going to be difficult to locate him," Makoto said, even as he began to type furiously at his keyboard. "Most of the surveillance in that part of the base—"

"I'm not interested in excuses," Misato snapped. "Just do it!"

* * *

Shinji Ikari knew he was crazy. There was really no other way to describe someone who lacked any supernatural abilities whatsoever but was rushing to the scene of a potentially deadly paranormal conflict anyway.

In a way, he was pleased with the way he'd been gripped by madness. It seemed that these moments of insanity were the only times when he really managed to accomplish things, like slaying the Fourth Angel or diving into a volcano to rescue Asuka.

_Maybe it's just left over craziness from trying to fight the Angel earlier,_ he thought wryly as he continued sprinting down flights of stairs.

Of course, Shinji knew that there was more to it than that. It seemed like he might have finally been given what he'd wanted all his life: someone who cared about him unconditionally, just because he was her son. He wasn't letting someone take that from him, not after mere hours.

Even if he wasn't entirely ready to believe that he truly had it.

After a few minutes of running, Shinji came to the part of the base where the demons had been let loose. Everything was utterly trashed, and the bodies of the NERV personnel unfortunate enough to have been in the area at the time littered the floor, all of them savagely torn apart.

Looking at them, Shinji felt the urge to vomit and clamped his throat shut. He fervently hoped that the demons weren't around any longer, now that his father was incapacitated.

_This is so nuts,_ he thought to himself.

The sound of running footsteps suddenly reached his ears, and moments later, a voice rang out. "Pilot Ikari! You are ordered to return to the command center! We're here to escort you there!"

_Damn,_ Shinji thought, detouring down another hallway to avoid the men.

Fortunately for him, the layout of NERV headquarters wasn't actually _that_ confusing in this area, since there was little variance from floor to floor. That he had a pretty decent sense of direction also didn't hurt his ability to take an alternate route without getting lost, either.

_I hope they don't hear me,_ Shinji thought, trying and failing to stop panting for breath for a moment, to no effect. His lungs burned, but the air inside them felt almost frigid. _I really need to workout more often._

The security personnel searching for him were making too much noise themselves to hear the Third Child's panting, and soon Shinji had put some distance between himself and them. He wasn't going to get dragged back up to the command center. In the back of his mind, he wondered if that was really a good thing.

After traversing down a few more floors, Shinji finally reached the place where his parents lay. The large demon his father had been using as a mount stood there, but it made no move to attack Shinji. He gave it a wide berth all the same as he approached Yui and Gendo.

Once right next to them, he squatted down slightly, propping his hands on his thighs and panting.

_Okay, I'm here, so now what?_ He wondered.

"Damn you, Rokubungi."

Shinji's head snapped up. That had been his mother's voice, but she looked as still as she had when he'd arrived; she could have been in a coma for what anyone could tell by looking at her. It was a disturbing sight.

"Yui-chan, I'm doing this for us."

That had been his father's voice, and it had come from Gendo's prone form on the floor. Shinji looked down and him, frowning.

"You're doing this for _you_!"

That had been his mother's voice again, but it had come from beneath the golden helmet that Gendo currently wore.

_What the hell?_ Shinji thought, tilting his head as he looked down at his father. _They're…they're both _inside_ him. But how? And why?_

The second question was a riddle he didn't think he'd ever be able to answer, not if he was given a thousand years to ponder it. However, the question of how his father had done this was another matter. The man was wearing the golden helmet his mother used to change into Fate, and he also noticed that the amulet—the one piece of Fate's costume that Yui wore even when she being herself—was around his father's neck.

Shinji kneeled down and took the amulet in one hand, suddenly knowing what he needed to do. He pulled the thing up off of Gendo's head, then placed it around his own neck. Next, he took the helmet off his father.

"This is probably the worst idea I've ever had," Shinji decided with a sigh, just before he donned the helmet.

The result of this was exactly the same as when Gendo had done it. Golden light exploded from within the helmet, Shinji screamed, and then he went collapsing down to the floor.

* * *

Some indeterminate period of time later, Shinji awoke with a groan and slowly sat up.

"What happened?" he muttered to no one in particular, his mind fuzzy.

He reached up to rub his head, and as his fingers made contact with his hair, Shinji suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be wearing headgear at the moment.

The realization caused him to abruptly waken fully, and he looked about wildly, gasping as he took in his surroundings. He was sitting on a tiny island of gray, barren rock, but his perch wasn't surrounded by water. Instead, it floated in an endless expanse of black, star-filled sky.

Shinji's hands reflexively went down to the ground and his fingers dug into the dirt beneath him, as though he was trying to grip it so as to keep himself from floating away into space.

_Where am I?_ He wondered, his head swimming. _The amulet? The helmet? Does it matter?_

He decided that it probably did, but that he probably would never be able to figure it out.

"Why do you resist this union, Yui-chan? Everything will be all right, if you simply allow yourself to become one with me."

"You're a monster! I don't want to be with you ever again!"

Shinji looked up to where the voice had come from, and soon spotted his mother and father. They were on a large stone island some distance away from where Shinji found himself. Yui was dressed in the garments of Dr. Fate, save for the helmet, which was conspicuously absent. Gendo was still dressed in the bizarre outfit he'd been wearing before. As Shinji watched, azure flames burst forth from the head of Gendo's bone war hammer and went streaking toward Yui, who quickly erected a shield of golden energy to defend herself.

"I have to get over there," Shinji muttered to himself. "But how?"

Seeming to respond to his desires, a number of the floating islands of rock around his began to move, quickly forming a series of stepping stones that led from where he was to where his parents were.

"Cool," Shinji said. "Kind of creepy, but cool."

Doing his best not to look down, Shinji began to jump from island to island, moving as quickly as he dared. He didn't know for sure what would happen if he were to fall into the endless abyss below him, but he wasn't feeling much need to experiment.

Finally, after a short but rather harrowing journey, Shinji had reached the island upon which his parents fought one another. It was easily the largest landmass in the surreal place in which he'd found himself, even boasting a small mountain in the center, though it was as barren of vegetation as all the others.

Yui and Gendo failed to notice him at first, and he watched as his father sent another plume of blue flame spiraling toward his recently returned mother. She again blocked it with her magic, but he heard her grunt with exertion and feared that she was weakening under the constant, fiery assault.

Shinji began to creep closer to the scene of the battle, using spikes of rock for cover to prevent himself from being seen.

"Everything can fine again, Yui-chan," Gendo said, brandishing his war hammer. "Things can be the way they used to be again. We can be _happy_ again!"

There a distinct note of madness in his father's voice, and Shinji suddenly realized that the man was changed. Something within him had broken or snapped that day, and the icy cold manipulator was gone, at least for the moment, and a different but no less dangerous figure stood in his place.

"Things can _never_ be the way they used to be, Rokubungi," Yui told her husband.

"Yes, they can!" Gendo shouted, and to Shinji he sounded quite mad. "All you need to do…is _submit_!"

Flames burst into being around the head of his war hammer again, and Shinji was in motion before he realized that he'd decided to do something.

"Father, stop!" Shinji shouted, emerging from his hiding place and grabbing hold of the war hammer's shaft. "You can't do this!"

"You?" Gendo said, his usually impassive face the picture of shock. Then his features rearranged themselves into an expression of contempt. "I don't know how you got here, but you have no business in this place. Leave. Now."

Shinji shivered, realizing abruptly that he couldn't just see and hear his father's obvious disdain for him, he could actually _feel_ it, like cold fingers reaching into his chest and touching his heart. Apparently, the walls between people were a little less sound in this strange nether place.

Yet he didn't release his hold on his father's weapon. "I won't run away," he said softly.

"Fine," Gendo growled.

With a savage jerk, the former Commander of NERV pulled his war hammer from Shinji's grasp, causing the Third Child to fall to the ground, landing painfully on his rear.

"If you don't have the sense to leave," Gendo said, raising the hammer, "I will _force_ you to leave!"

"Don't you _dare_ try to hurt my son!" Yui screamed as Gendo swung.

Two things happened simultaneously. First, a sphere of golden light formed around Shinji, and Gendo's hammer fell upon it without so much as scratching the magical barrier.

Second, Shinji felt another wave of emotion that was not his sweep over him. It was rage of such intensity that it shocked him, and it was primal, almost feral even. It was the anger of a mother who was seeing her child's life threatened, and the overwhelming need to protect that child. Shinji had felt the like of it only a few times before.

When Evangelion Unit One went berserk.

Even after he'd realized that some piece of his mother was inside the purple and green destroyer, he had always believed that some of that irresistible tidal wave of emotion he'd felt coming from the machine those few times it had gone ballistic had been partially that of the Evangelion itself. That the violent, perpetually angry nature of the beast had contributed to the pure rage that had been unleashed on his behalf.

Now he knew that wasn't true. The need to protect him, the molten fury at those who would hurt him…that had _all _been from his mother.

And as terrible a time as it was for it, Shinji felt a lump forming in throat at the knowledge that anyone could get so enraged over someone threatening him, and would be willing to do _anything_ to see him continue to live.

_Mother…_

Suddenly, Shinji was cruelly brought back to reality as Gendo capitalized on the interruption in the battle. Conjuring such a powerful shield for her son had left Yui winded, and when Gendo sent another ball of fire flying her way, she wasn't able to defend herself.

"Argh!" she cried in pain as she was knocked down to the ground, the front of her costume scorched black by the heat.

"_No!_" Shinji screamed, rushing over to her and kneeling next to her supine form.

He was supremely relieved when he found she was still breathing.

"Get away from her, Shinji."

The Third Child looked up to see his father slowly approaching, and he scowled. "Not on your life."

He wouldn't allow his mother to be taken from him again, and he'd be damned if he allowed his own interference in the battle to help his father claim victory. He wasn't going to let himself screw this situation up.

"You don't understand what I'm trying to do," Gendo said, again sounding almost like the shrewd calculating man Shinji knew. "All I want is to make your mother _understand_ me again. Once I achieve that, she and I can be together again, and our family can be whole again. Don't you want that?"

"I don't want you in my life," Shinji said flatly. "Not anymore."

Gendo's features hardened. "I haven't come so close to my goal to be stopped by the likes of you. Step aside, or I'll kill you," he said bluntly.

"No, go away!" Shinji yelled.

"Move aside or die," Gendo hissed, taking another step forward.

"I said _go away_!" Shinji shrieked.

And then something that shocked both father and son happened. Orange light flared into existence between them, forming into a hexagonal barrier. This brilliant wall of force slammed into Gendo, sending him flying. The man screamed as he sailed through the air, until he crashed into the side of mountain, groaning.

"H-How did I _do_ that?" Shinji stammered.

"AT Field," Yui groaned.

"Mother!" Shinji gasped, turning to her. "Are you all right?"

"I'm about as all right as can be expected," Yui winced as she sat up. "To answer your other question, the power of the human AT field is paradoxically both weaker and stronger in this place. Gendo hoped to capitalize on that weakness by merging with me and taking control of Fate. It looks like your experience manipulating AT Fields in EVA allows you to utilize the strength of them in this place."

Shinji nodded. "Mother, is it over? Did we win?"

She shook her head gravelly. "No. Your father will draw more power from his demonic ally and come at us again."

"Then what do we do?" he asked.

Yui hesitated for a moment, and when next she spoke, it was with reluctance. "I know a spell that should sever Gendo's tie to his new friend, but I need a few moments to prepare it. Longer than we have," she said. "Shinji-kun, I hate to ask this of you, but do you think you can keep him occupied for just a little while?"

Rather than say anything, Shinji just nodded.

Mostly because he was afraid that he'd show how frightened he was if he opened his mouth.

"You're braver than you give yourself credit for, Shinji-kun," Yui said warmly. "I'm proud of you. Now go. Hopefully, this won't take too long."

He nodded and headed away from his mother, toward the mountain in the center of the island. From the corner of his eye, he could see Yui taking cover behind an outcropping of rocks, hiding herself from view.

For a moment, his father didn't move from the place where he'd fallen, and Shinji dared to hope that he'd remain there until his mother was ready to make her move.

However, he had no such luck. The man abruptly got to his feet, a halo of blue flame surrounding him now, and a pair of black bat wings burst from his back, tearing through both his shirt and his chain mail armor as though they were made of paper. He looked about, and Shinji could see a wicked red light emanating from behind the black lenses of the glasses he wore.

When he locked that burning gaze upon his son, it was all Shinji could do not to quail in terror.

"Where is she?" Gendo demanded.

Shinji gathered up every ounce of courage he possessed and shouted back. "If you want her, you'll have to go through me first!"

Without another word, Gendo spread his new wings and went soaring toward Shinji, leaving a trail of ash and embers as he went.

The Third Child took a deep breath as he watched this terrible parody of a human being streak toward him, and he did he best to picture the indestructible barrier of orange light.

"AT Field full power," he said softly.

Dust and small rocks were kicked up in a rapidly expanding circle around the Third Child by the power of the forces he was invoking. It looked like a subtle display of awesome power, and Shinji only hoped that it would be enough.

Gendo lashed out with his war hammer, and the shield of orange light flashed into being as the hammerhead slammed into it.

The force of the blow, which Shinji felt like it was a pressure on his mind, was incredible, but it nearly paled next to the force of his father's emotions, which Shinji could once again sense.

At that moment, Gendo Ikari _hated_ Shinji Ikari with every fiber of his being, just like he hated everyone who tried to prevent him from regaining Yui. The intensity of his hate, which had been mere contempt only minutes earlier, was staggering.

Yet, it allowed Shinji to discover a simple and wondrous thing.

He didn't _care_ that his father hated him then. He didn't care what his father felt at all.

Despite Gendo's awesome demonic powers, his ability to hurt his son had never been more diminished.

"You won't win!" Shinji shouted. "I won't let you!"

"You can't stand in my way forever," Gendo retorted through clenched teeth.

Shinji didn't bother to reply, doing everything he could to maintain his AT Field. It was tremendously powerful, but his father's assault was as well.

_Immovable object against unstoppable force. It's the Tenth Angel all over again,_ he thought grimly, trying not to recall how close he'd come to losing that battle. If Rei and Asuka had shown up any later than they had, he would have buckled beneath the kamikaze Angel's weight.

"Rokubungi!"

"Yui-chan!" Gendo exclaimed, immediately leaving his son and flying toward her.

No longer needing to defend himself against his father, Shinji allowed himself to collapse to the ground, feeling exhausted.

"By the eye of Ra, with the symbol of everlasting life, I sever your connection to the being from the pit, Rokubungi!" Yui shouted.

A large ankh the color of molten gold came into being around Gendo, and the demonically empowered man was suddenly attached to the symbol. He let out a scream of agony as the light pulsed and then flared, momentarily blinding both Shinji and Yui.

When mother and son could see again, Gendo lay on the ground, unmoving and looking quite human again.

"Is it over?" Shinji asked, fearing to hope that this hellish experience had finally come to a close.

"Yes," Yui said with a tired nod. "It's really—"

"Just beginning."

A ball of azure flame suddenly burst into life where Gendo lay and quickly expanded, sweeping into the two who stood next to him. Shinji and Yui cried out as they were both thrown backwards by the force of explosion.

"Not bad, Yui-chan," Gendo said as he got to his feet and dusted himself off, his demonic features having returned. "However, that spell's a little outdated. Probably from the previous age."

Yui's eyes narrowed, and it was clear that she had little tolerance remaining for this battle. "Gendo, enough!" she shouted as she sent a bolt of magical energy his way.

The bearded man easily deflected the attack with his hammer. "It's never enough! Not until I have you back!"

He swung his hammer then, aiming right for Yui. Shinji was by his mother's side in an instant, summoning an AT Field into being.

"Father, stop this!" Shinji begged as the man furiously assaulted the shield of orange light.

"No!" Gendo yelled. "I won't! I won't!"

"But don't you realize what you're doing?! You're going to destroy everything you ever wanted!" Shinji yelled.

The words had come out of his mouth before they'd run through his mind, but Shinji immediately realized they were true, the same way he'd realized that his father had hated him earlier, and that his mother loved him with all her heart.

Not only that, but to Shinji's immense surprise, he also realized that his mother wasn't the only person included in the category of "everything Gendo Ikari had ever wanted."

She was the one he wanted most, to be sure; she was paramount to Gendo. But if he possessed the power to make the world exactly as he willed it, that world _would_ include Shinji Ikari. Gendo _had_ cared about him once, but he'd pushed his son away, or more accurately, run away from him, because—

Shinji's eyes widened, and he barely noticed when Gendo's attacked relented.

"What did you say?" the man whispered.

Forcing himself back to the present, Shinji turned to look at his father. "Look, influenced by her new powers or not, Mother's never going to want to be with you again," he said, concealing the rioting emotions inside him as best he could. "And even I can't forgive you for the things you've done. You're never going to have your happy little family back. We'll fight you until our real bodies wither and die before we take you back. Even if you win, the closest you'll get is some…some pale shadow of a family where you force Mother and maybe me to be around you. So if you ever truly cared about us, then think about us before what you want and stop this."

"I…" Gendo stammered.

"Father?" Shinji asked.

"I…" Gendo sighed. "I _can't_."

He swung his war hammer again, but before it could make contact with Shinji's AT Field, golden light flared around Gendo once more, and this time four ankhs came into being around him.

"I see how my previous spell was obsolete," Yui said. "You always did say I was a fast learner, Gendo. Guess you were right."

He screamed, and the ankhs abruptly winked out. Gendo collapsed, and this time he did not get up.

"_Now_ is it over?" Shinji asked wearily.

"Yes," Yui said. "Now it's over."

* * *

"Hey, look, he's moving! Shinji's moving!" Misato exclaimed.

Asuka and Rei turned and saw that the Third Child was indeed stirring for the first time since he and the other two Ikari's had been brought to NERV Medical. Moments later, Shinji released a groan and sat up, removing the helmet from his head.

"Ugh," he said. "Where am I?"

"The ward, baka," Asuka said. "I hope you realize that what you did was friggen' insane."

"Yup," Shinji replied with uncharacteristic nonchalance. "What happened to all the demons that were attacking?"

"They disappeared a little while after you put that helmet on," Misato answered. "Just up and vanished into thin air."

"Are you well?" Rei asked him softly. "What happened to the Commander and Mrs. Ikari?"

At the mention of Gendo, blue light suddenly arced out of the amulet that was still around Shinji's neck and went straight into his father's body, which lay on the bed next to his own. Gendo released a gasp, opened his eyes, and tried to sit up. However, this last action was prevented by the fact that his wrists were handcuffed to the bed's metal headboard, along with his ankles.

"He'll live," Shinji said.

With that, he got out of bed and removed the amulet, then placed it around his mother's neck. Yui sucked in a gasp of air and sat up.

"Oh," she groaned, rubbing her eyes. "I do _not_ want to do that again anytime soon."

"No argument here," Shinji agreed.

"Where's Gendo?" Yui asked.

"Right there," Shinji said, gesturing at his father's bound form.

Yui's brow drew down in a deep frown as she approached her husband, taking her helmet from her son as she went.

"Major Katsuragi," Yui said, not turning her angry glare away from Gendo. "Gendo Ikari died during his foolish attempt to escape, understood?"

"Wait," Misato said, "what are you going to do?"

Yui placed the golden helm over her head, transforming once again into Dr. Fate. "After today, I don't trust any prison constructed and guarded by normal men and women to hold him. I intend to incarcerate him myself, in a place he will _never_ escape from."

Misato hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "All right," she said. "The records will show Gendo Ikari died during his escape attempt."

"Thank you, Major," Fate said, then turned her attention back to the former commander. "Come along, Gendo."

An ankh shaped portal appeared in the room, blinding the occupants with its light. When it had faded, Fate and Gendo were nowhere to be found.

"Where did she take him?" Asuka asked.

"I'm not sure we really want to know," Shinji replied.

* * *

"Where are we?" Gendo asked as he looked around the stone structure they had appeared in, with its dizzying and impossible staircases going off in all directions.

"My tower," Fate answered. "In this place, not even the most powerful demon will be able to come to your aid."

"Yui-chan…"

"I told you, don't '-chan' me," Fate said in a dangerously soft voice.

Suddenly, four chains, each one attached to the walls, magically sprang to life and moved toward Gendo. The bearded man gasped as each chain wrapped itself around one of his legs or arms, drawing tighter and tighter around him until he was suspended in the air by the links of metal in a spread eagle position.

"Yui…" Gendo said, his voice pleading.

"You know, Gendo," Fate said, "part of me, a very small part of me, thought that you weren't entirely beyond redemption. I believed that one day, you might have been punished enough, that would come to realize how horrible you'd been since I was absorbed into EVA, and that you could change for the better as a result of it. I guess it just goes to show that I can still be as foolish as I was before I was absorbed into EVA, since what you did today certainly proved me wrong."

"Yui, please…" Gendo begged.

"Can you believe that for a moment, I actually thought I might want you back someday?" Yui lied, twisting the knife.

"What?" Gendo gasped.

"The magic in this place will sustain you for the rest of your natural existance," Fate said, another ankh shaped portal opening behind her. "Good-bye, Gendo. Have a nice life."

"No!" Gendo shouted. "Please, don't leave me, Yui! Not again!"

Fate silently walked through the portal, which vanished after her.

* * *

Later that evening found Shinji, Asuka, Misato, and Yui at the Katsuragi apartment. Misato had generously offered Yui the use of her couch until she could find a new home, and Yui had quickly accepted.

Misato had also declared that a party was in order, to celebrate the events of the day, despite how exhausted her roommates were from the battles they'd waged mere hours earlier. Fortunately, said party had consisted of Misato ordering take out food and then her drinking far too many cans of Yebisu, so it really wasn't very much different from a normal night there.

_You'd think someone like Misato would be able to throw a more exciting party,_ Shinji thought with little real mirth as he sat on the apartment's balcony and looked up at the night sky.

He heard the sound of the door between the balcony and the apartment sliding open, and Yui walked up to him. "Mind if I join you out here?" she asked.

"Of course not," Shinji replied, and Yui sat down in one of the other deck chairs present.

"You know, Shinji-kun, Misato mentioned to me that this building is mostly empty," she said. "I could probably get one of the apartments next to this one without much trouble."

"I'd like that," Shinji said. "It would be almost like not moving away from here at all."

"So you'll come and live with me?" Yui asked hopefully.

Shinji nodded. "Yeah, I decided that I want to."

It would still be a while before they had the kind of relationship a mother and son should. Their time in that strange realm where he could practically read the minds of his parents hadn't changed that. Now, however, he was certain that they would have that relationship eventually, if they were willing to work at it.

"I'm glad," Yui said.

He gave her a small smile and nodded.

"You've been very quiet since we escaped Gendo," Yui commented. "Any particular reason for it?"

Shinji hesitated, briefly considering telling her it was nothing. Then he disregarded the idea.

"When we were there…wherever there was, I could sort of sense you and Father," Shinji said. "Almost see what you were thinking at times."

Yui nodded. "I could, too. It was an effect of the AT Fields being weak there."

"Well, when I was fighting with Father, I saw that he had cared about me at one time," he said.

"Of course he did," Yui said. "You're our son."

"But after you died, he sent me away," Shinji said. "I always thought it was because he didn't care about me anymore, or even that he never had, but that wasn't it. He sent me away because he was afraid that without you around…he'd only hurt me."

"I can't believe he didn't realize how absurd that was," Yui said.

"I can," Shinji said, his eyes showing a haunted expression. "Mother, just before you came here, I was leaving the city. I was going to leave forever…because it seemed like I only hurt the people I care about when I'm around them."

"Shinji-kun—"

"Don't you see?" he asked, looking pale. "I'm _just like him_."

"Shinji-kun, listen to me," Yui said firmly, and he nodded and looked at her silently. "Look, Gendo's blood runs in your veins. As much as you don't want to see any similarities between the two of you, there will be a few. But your genes don't dictate everything about who you are; it's not like you have no say in it. You know firsthand how much it hurts when someone you care about pushes you away, regardless of whether or not they're doing it out of some sense of keeping you from harm. Learn from your father's mistake, and you won't be like him. Understand?"

"I think I do," Shinji nodded.

"Good," Yui said. "You know, Shinji-kun, you handled yourself very well today. I think most people in your position would have been so stunned and confused by all the magic that they wouldn't have been able to do anything."

"Oh, it wasn't that big of a deal, really," he said modestly.

"You're being too humble, Shinji-kun," Yui said. "You're very talented. Who knows, maybe when it comes time for me to stop being Dr. Fate, I can pass the helmet to you."

"R-Really?" Shinji asked, shocked.

"It's certainly possible," Yui replied with a smile. "Now I suggest you get to bed, young man. You've had a very long day, and you need your rest."

Shinji smiled. "Yes, Mother."

He kept smiling as made his way to his room, dressed for bed, and lay down. There were a number of trials that still awaited them all, not the least of which were the remaining Angels and whatever SEELE would throw at them. However, with his mother returned to him and the power of Fate on their side, he was confident they could pull through.

For the first time in his life, he was optimistic about the future.

* * *

Author's Notes: And so ends Yui's SOE2 fic. I don't really have a whole lot to say here. All in all, I think this one came out pretty well.

Most of my reviewers asked about the lack of any real focus on Shinji's reaction to Yui's return in part one. It was a legitimate thing to bring up, and if I had to write this over again, I'd probably include that in part one. At the time, however, I figured that Shinji would probably be too shell-shocked to be feeling much of anything yet, and since I knew part two would feature him heavily, I decided to leave him mostly out of part one.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

* * *

Omakes

Ill Thought Out Prison

"YUI! COME BACK YUI!" Gendo screamed at the top of his lungs.

His words echoed through the numerous corridors, stairwells, and passageways in the tower of fate, but no one answered him. He was alone in great stone structure, as he had been for hours upon hours now.

"Yui! Yui! Let me go!" Gendo cried, pulling uselessly at the chains which kept him suspended in the air. "I'll do anything! _Anything!_"

If someone who knew Gendo could look upon him now, they'd assume that he was a broken man who was giving voice to the pain from Yui's rejection, as well as having had all his plans reduced to ash.

That someone would be wrong; Gendo had passed that phase hours ago.

"PLEASE, YUI!" he sobbed. "I JUST WANT TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!"


End file.
